Reconciling Past Regrets
by othlvr16
Summary: Sam is currently finishing her book, but she's stuck in a certain part. Her agent tells her that maybe she needs to head home to get her creative juices flowing again. Maybe while she's there she can reconnect with Brooke, who she hasn't spoken to in a long time.


**A/N- So, it has been a really long time since I have written anything, not for a lack of trying though. I have been slowly working on different stories, but known are in a position to be posted. This is just a one-shot.**

Reconciling Past Regrets

Samantha Walker sat across from her friend and agent. They were sitting at a coffee shop drinking coffee and going over the next stages that Sam needed to do in order to complete her book.

"You are almost there Sam. You are so close. What is holding you back?"

Sam says and leans back in her chair. At 23, there were a lot of things that were holding her back, but only one really comes to mind. Her one biggest regret and one that seemed her agent wanted her to write about.

"I don't know," Sam rolls her eyes. "I do know. I just don't want to write about it. I can't."

Lindsey Sloane, Sam's agent sat back and looked over her client and her friend. She has had experience with writers being stuck, particularly one that she had almost married, but eventually all writers find that creativity again. She just hoped that in Sam's case it would happen soon.

"I can't believe I never asked you this before, but how close is this book to your own life?"

Sam takes a sip of her coffee and bites the bottom of her lip.

"Pretty damn close," Sam shrugs her shoulders. "I changed the names and some of the experiences that the main character faces, but otherwise it's pretty accurate."

"How do you want the book to end Sam?"

Sam looked at Lindsey and shrugged her shoulders. "A part of me wants to write the ending the way it happened, but a bigger part of me, the part of me that I'm struggling with wants to write the ending that should've happened. The ending I never got."

Lindsey looked over at her friend with a small smile. "Do you want to know what I think?"

Sam smirks and quirks an eyebrow. "Not really, but I'm sure you are going to tell me."

"I think you need to get closure, whatever type of closure that may be, because until you do, I don't think you will be able to continue writing this book," Sam nods her head. "Which you need to, because the deadline is in two weeks. You need to take a trip back to your hometown."

Sam nods her head in understanding. Sam sips the rest of her coffee and stands up from the table.

"To Tree Hill I go." Sam states with a huff.

Lindsay's eyes widen at the name of the town.

"Excuse me?"

Sam looks at Lindsay in confusion. "What?"

"Did you just say Tree Hill?"

Sam nods her head slowly. "Yeah, why?"

Lindsay shakes her head with a sigh. "Sorry. It's just I haven't heard about that town in a long time. I haven't had the best time there."

Sam winces knowing what Lindsay is talking about. "Yeah, sorry about that. Lucas kind of screwed you over. Anyway, I should go," Sam says before quickly walking away.

Sam had never mentioned a lot about her background. She had never told Lindsay that she was from Tree Hill or that she knew her ex fiancé or that she knew Brooke and Haley and everyone else half-way talented in that city. With the way Lindsay is quickly following, Sam thinks she probably should've.

"Sam, wait! We need to talk."

Reconciling Past Regrets

Sam had not stepped foot in Tree Hill since she graduated high school. The night of graduation, Sam got into her car and drove off never looking back. She tried to keep in contact with everybody, especially Brooke, but things got busy for Sam and the phone calls happened less and less until it went three years without a word from each other.

Of course, Sam kept up with Brooke's life via social media pages and the news and sometimes a text from Jamie from here to there, but other than that their communication became lax and eventually it had stopped all together.

Sam's first stop was to head to the river court. If she was going to see anybody from this town first it was going to be Jamie. She had missed him.

Her hunch had been right. Sam watched as Jamie practiced shooting the ball. He was by himself which made Sam approach him easier.

"How's it going stranger?"

Jamie turned around at the familiar voice and dropped the ball in shock. He couldn't believe his eyes. It was Sam. His friend and someone he missed dearly. Jamie let the ball dribble off and he walked quicker over to Sam.

"What are you doing here?" Jamie asks with excitement.

Sam shrugs her shoulders. "I'm struggling with some stuff and was hoping that being home would help."

"Then why aren't you with aunt Brooke."

And that was the ultimate question.

Sam had no answer.

"She doesn't say it, but she misses you," Jamie states softly.

"I'm scared to face her."

Jamie rolls his eyes and shakes his head. "We can go together, just let me get my ball."

Sam takes a deep breath and lets it out.

Reconciling Past Regrets

Sam and Jamie enjoyed their walk around Tree Hill. They spent their time catching up with each other and it didn't matter that they had been walking for a long time. When Jamie's footsteps stopped so did Sam's. Sam looked up at the red door. They were finally there.

"This is where I stop," Jamie states with a smile.

Sam looks at Jamie in panic. "What do you mean?"

Jamie nods his head to the other side of the street where a car was parked. Squinting her eyes, Sam spots Haley in the driver side waving. She waves back and looks back at Jamie as he held up his cell phone. "Mom says you need to do this yourself."

"Always trying to teach me a lesson," Sam mutters.

Jamie laughs. "She also said she wants a dinner with you so just let her know when you're free." Jamie hugs Sam. "It's going to be fine. It's just Brooke." Jamie pulls away and walks across the street to get into his mother's car.

Sam watches as Haley drives off and Sam turns back to the house.

"Here we go."

Reconciling Past Regrets

A hesitant knock echoes in the entryway of the house. It had been so soft that Brooke had barely heard it. Fortunately, she did as she was walking down the staircase in her home. Opening the door, Brooke was completely blown away by the person that was standing in front of her. Her _almost_ daughter, Samantha.

"Um…hi?" Sam questions hesitantly. She didn't really know what else to say.

Brooke doesn't say anything. What she does do is quickly wrap Sam into her arms and holds her tight. It had been a very long time since she last seen or spoke to the girl who had almost became her daughter. What felt like forever was only just a few minutes, Brooke finally spoke words.

"I missed you."

And that was all it took for Sam to break down and cry. Being the kind of mother that she was, Brooke just held her and comforted her and let Sam have her moment.

After a while Sam sniffles and pulls away. "I missed you too."

Brooke grabs Sam's hand and pulls her further into the house. "Now that we have that out of the way you can tell me what has been happening with you and why we lost touch."

Brooke and Sam settled into the living room and sat down on the couch. Sam looked around the room and noticed a lot of photos on the walls. There were pictures of Davis and Jude from their early stages as a baby until their stage currently at five years old. There were also pictures of Jamie and all of Brooke's friends, but what didn't really surprise Sam at all was that there were pictures of her as well. There were pictures from when Sam was living with Brooke. There were pictures of Sam when she had attended Brooke and Julian's wedding. Also, there were pictures of Sam holding Davis and Jude when they had been born and also there was Sam's high school graduation photo.

"Where are the boys?" Sam asked.

Brooke quirked an eyebrow. "Julian took them to the park. Nice try changing the subject, but that isn't going to happen. What's going on kid?"

"My agent says I am stuck and she's probably right."

Intrigued, Brooke asks, "What kind of agent?"

"My book agent. I'm writing a book."

Overcome with joy, Brooke wraps Sam into a hug. "Samantha, that's amazing."

Sam nods her head after the hug. "Yeah, I just…I don't know what I am doing."

"Okay, so why does your agent think you are stuck?"

"There's a part in my book where the main character is at a really difficult decision in her life and I can't seem to write it."

"What's the decision?"

Sam couldn't look at Brooke when she said the next part so she decided to start the wall in front of her. "She has to decide whether to live with her birth mother or stay with the woman that took her in and my character is struggling with the decision."

Brooke nods her head in understanding. "Am I safe to assume that this book is a lot about your life and the experiences you have gone through?"

Sam looks at Brooke and nods her head. "Yes, you can safely assume that."

Brooke nods her head and takes a breath. "I am going to take a shot as to why you are here," Sam nods her head and Brooke continues. "You are stuck on this particular part because deep down inside you have struggled with the decision you made in your own life. You have moments where you feel like you had made the right decision, but sometimes you have moments where you feel like it should've gone the other way."

Sam looks at Brooke in complete wonder. Brooke had nailed it right on the head. "How did you know all that?"

Brooke raises her eyebrow. "As if you don't already know."

Sam conceded and nodded her head. "You feel like that too."

"Yeah. Look Sam, we made the decisions that we had to. You wanted to know your birth mother and as much as I hated it, it was the right thing to do. We could go back and forth and think about all the 'what ifs' that can come from choosing a different choice, but the truth is that we came to a decision and that's that. I love you and that isn't ever going to change and nobody needs to apologize or anything like that. That's just the way our story had been written."

"I love you too," Sam responds. "You're right and I don't think I've ever let myself off the hook for leaving and that's probably why I can't write the rest of this book. And it's also the reason that I think I stopped trying to keep in touch."

"I think that's on us both. I could've reached out as well, but I just figured you were out living your life."

"I guess we were both pretty stupid huh?"

Brooke playfully glared at Sam. "I guess so. Do you think you can write the rest of this book now?"

Sam nods her head. "Yeah, but I think I'm going to write it a little differently then the way my life happened."

Brooke smiles brightly. "So, that's out of the way let's talk about boys," Sam groans and Brooke continues. "Is there anyone special in your life? Oh, is it Jack?"

Sam shakes her head. "No, there is no one special in my life. As for Jack, well, he's been married for about four years," Brooke's mouth opens in shock. "Yeah, I know. He also has a little boy," Sam pulls out her phone and brings up a picture of Jack's son.

"He's adorable," Brooke states with a smile.

"Yeah, he's three years old and he's my godson, Samuel Finn Daniels, but I call him Finn."

And that's how Sam spent the next three days, catching up with her second family.

Reconciling Past Regrets

"This book is going to be great Sam. There is one final step left," Lindsey says as she sips her coffee.

Sam and Lindsey were back in the same coffee shop that they were at last week.

"The dedication," Sam says with a smile. Sam hands over a piece of paper and hands it over to Lindsey. "Here it is."

Lindsey reads over the dedication with a smile on her face. "This is good. Is there anything else that we need to discuss or are we done?"

Sam taps her finger on the table before speaking up. "Actually, there is one more thing that you can do."

"Whatever it is, just name it."

Sam looks up at Lindsey. "I want to write under a different name."

Lindsey just raises an eyebrow.

 **A Few Months Later**

Once again there was a knock on the door at the Baker residence. Brooke opens the door and is

met with a delivery man.

"Package for Brooke Baker?"

"That's me," Brooke responds before signing for the package. The delivery man hands Brooke the package as well as a letter. "Thanks."

Brooke closes the door and looks at the package and the letter. Both were from Sam. On the outside of the package it said to read the letter first. So Brooke did.

 _Dear Brooke,_

 _I am so sorry I will not be able to deliver this package myself, but something came up last minute. However, I wanted you to be the very first person to receive it. Hopefully, I will be able to make a trip in the next week or so._

 _Love,_

 _Sam_

 _PS, Make sure you read the dedication._

"What?" Brooke says not understanding the letter. Brooke then opens the package and she gasps as she sees what's inside.

It was Sam's finished book, _A Forever Home_. Brooke looks at the front side of the book and smiles brightly. Brooke had not expected for Sam to use this pen name, but it made her really happy.

 _A Forever Home written by Samantha Davis._

Remember what was said in the letter, Brooke opened up to the dedication page.

 _This book is dedicated to my first mom, Brooke Penelope Davis. She is my forever home. It may not matter that I never stayed living with her as a teenager, but she made a permanent mark on my heart and helped me become the person that I am today. She is and forever will be my mother. And nothing, and nobody will ever change that. Thank you, mom, for all the support and love that you have given me over the course of my knowing you, even if we haven't been in touch all the time. I love you._

A short time later another photo showed up in Brooke Baker's living room. It was a photo of Sam and Brooke at Sam's very first book signing.

 **A/N- I have decided to create a poll and leave it up to you readers on which stories I should focus on finishing, that way I can focus on only one or two things at a time. So please go to my profile and vote.**


End file.
